Book Review and Giveaway! The Sun Zebra, by R. Garcia

The Sun Zebra, by R. Garcia
The four Nell stories that marveled readers at Scribd.com are put together here for the first time in this collection, which also includes an all-new story, “Birdman and the Fairy Tale.”

This book is best described as a children’s book for grownups. Its aim is to encourage us to discover (or rediscover) the amazing things that children and their magical carefree world can teach us, even as we try to teach them about the harsh realities of our own. The book is a collection of five stories that follow the “adventures in living” of an unusual little girl called Nell, her mother Rhonda, and Nell’s father who is the narrator of the stories.

My Review:
This book was such a dramatic change of pace from everything I’ve read recently that I was surprised by it. It was absolutely beautiful.

Told from the perspective of Nell’s father, this collection of short stories are a perfect reminder that childhood is available to anyone brave enough to go out and take it. I felt like I had rediscovered childhood as an adult and came to realize that it is never out of reach. The stories emanate a warm, loving atmosphere conducive to creating smiles and satisfaction.

This is not an action packed page turner, but rather a thoughtful exploration of the important things in life. It is the type of book that you will want to read slowly, digesting each word and absorbing their meanings. It is a book that will leave you pondering and inspired to find joy in everyday miracles.

R. Garcia is the peculiar eclectic writer. He was born in Cuba and lived in several Latin American countries before residing permanently in the United States. Along the way he obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and produced several highly technical publications. However, one fine day he decided to fulfill his dream of writing something besides technical articles. This he began to do by publishing his work under the pen name “Phantomimic” on the document sharing site Scribd.com, where his stories have accumulated more than one hundred thousand reads and hundreds of comments. Based in part on this enthusiastic response to his work, he decided to take it to the next level. His first book on the Amazon Kindle is the collection of short stories entitled: “The Sun Zebra”.

What are 10 things that your readers might not know about you?
1) As my bio reads, I was born in Cuba. This was one year before Fidel Castro
overthrew the Batista dictatorship, and went on to establish a dictatorship of his
own. My parents finally decided to leave the country when I returned one day from
elementary school singing the International Socialist Anthem.

2) As you can figure out from #1, my first language is Spanish. This is probably
why I write and read English slower than the average person.

3) Each of the last 3 generations of my immediate family has ended up resettling in
a different country for one reason or another.

4) I myself have lived in a total of 5 countries throughout my life: Cuba,
Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico, and the United States.

5) When I was a little kid I won second place in a Lego tournament. I built a
replica of the Apollo rocket that sent the astronauts to the moon.

6) I played chess in my youth (which is what nerds did at the time) reaching a rank
of first class player.

7) Talking about nerds, I am a bit of a quirky nerd like the character Sheldon
played by the talented actor Jim Parsons in the sitcom “The Big Bang Theory”. But
unlike Sheldon I am not so socially inept!

8) I also used to be an amateur astronomer. I would go to the top of mountains with
my friends and identify the constellations and the planets. When a small telescope
was available we would also look at nearby galaxies.

9) The first time I lived surrounded by snow was here in the U.S. I arrived in New
York State during winter to pursue graduate studies. I had a cold, and that day
there was a fire alarm at 2 AM. We had to leave the student residence, and outside
it was snowing. There I was, coughing under this strange, cold, fluffy, white stuff
falling from the sky while the Americans around me were dancing and yelling,
“Party, party, party!” This was an interesting cultural experience.

10) Although my first book, the Sun Zebra, which Dena has reviewed here (thanks
Dena!) is a collection of family-friendly stories, I am an eclectic writer. My second
book of short stories will be very different. They are going to be stories that deal
with the paranormal and the psychological. I will reveal what the name of my book
will be in a few weeks on my blog. So if after reading The Sun Zebra you are in
the mood for a change of pace, stay tuned for my next book!